Inosculation
by attackfishscales
Summary: When Iroh comes to Ba Sing Se to meet with a White Lotus contact, he gets a lot more than he bargained for in the form of a boy who looks startlingly familiar.
1. Inosculation

**Author's Note:** Written for bunny-loverxiv on Tumblr as a reward for donating nine dollars to RAICES, a charity that aids immigrants and refugees coming to the US and are fighting Trump's crimes against humanity. She wanted a fic in which Zuko looks exactly like Ozai except for the scar. This does not entirely fit the prompt, as it takes place in my Prince Jet Rebel Leader Zuko AU before Zuko has his scar. More for this AU can be found on my Tumblr (attackfish) at the tag: "#Prince Jet Rebel Leader Zuko"

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Inosculation

The first time he saw the boy, Iroh almost called him by his brother's name. But of course Ozai wasn't a harried teenager in an apron, serving him mediocre tea. "What's your name, child?"

"I'm not a child," he fired back testily, and then glanced around anxiously. More subdued, he said, "Zuko."

Iroh's eyes widened. "That's a Fire Nation name."

An ugly flush colored Zuko's face, eyes burning with badly hidden anger. "My Earth Kingdom mother gave it to me."

Iroh gave him his most pleasant smile. "I'm sure she had her reasons."

As Zuko marched away to another table, Iroh sipped his tea. Periodically, he felt the intensity of the boy's stare fall on him, hostile and ashamed.

o0O0o

"Where are you from?"

Zuko stopped in the middle of putting Iroh's tea on the table, eyes wide with fear and bewilderment. The boy had no ability to conceal his emotions at all.

"Gaipan," he said finally. "It's just a village. You won't have heard of it."

"In the northwest. The Fire Nation sent their army in twice. The second time, they made it into a colony, under the orders of the Dragon of the West, as a staging post to attack Ba Sing Se by water." Iroh let show nothing of his own emotions, voice as light as he could make it. "The first time would have been about sixteen, seventeen years ago."

That ugly flush returned.

"Ah," he said delicately. "There's no shame in it. Not for you. Anyone who tries to tell you there is, is just trying to make believe it can't happen to them and their family."

It had been Firelord Azulon's last campaign. Iroh remembered how his father had seemed when he came home, old and warn, and desperate to prove he wasn't. Zuko's yellow-gold eyes, fire eyes, found his own, and Iroh let him make his own assumptions.

o0O0o

He waved the White Lotus operative out of the private back room and shut the door behind them both. The tea shop had long since closed, and Zuko was the only one left to clean up after a pair of customers who should have left hours ago. "I'm very sorry. My Pai Sho game lasted much longer than I thought it would."

When the boy scowled like that, Iroh could almost suppose he had gone back in time, to before Ozai's teenage bouts of sulkiness had turned into dangerous cruelty.

"I'll see you again in a few days," the man said.

"I look forward to it!" Iroh smiled as Zuko's glower deepened. Once the other man had left, and the door was safely shut behind him, Iroh bowed his head contritely. "I really am sorry. I lost track of time."

"Whatever," Zuko growled, grabbing a towel and heading to the back room to survey the damage. "I need to get back to my kids."

"You are a little young for kids, aren't you?" Iroh observed, following him as far as the door to the private room.

"Yeah, probably." Zuko picked up the empty teacups and teapot, wiped the table down haphazardly, and started for the kitchen. When Iroh followed him there too, he snapped, "What do you _want?"_

"I was hoping I could ask you to walk me home." Iroh held up his arms. "An old man like me? It would make me feel much better if you were there to keep me safe. And while we walked you could tell me a little bit about yourself, and your children."

"They're not _my_ kids. They're orphans. From Gaipan. I brought them here, so they're my responsibility." Zuko kept his eyes on the teapot as he washed.

"That's very noble of you." Ozai had never taken responsibility for anything in his life.

Zuko shrugged, setting the teapot on the counter to dry and taking off his apron. "Not really."

"Learn to take a complement, child." Iroh smiled to take the sting out of his words. "Life will go easier for you."

Zuko snorted.

Iroh watched and waited as Zuko doused the oil lamps. As he extinguished one, two others, the two last ones, across the room, flickered out. "You're a firebender."

Zuko's head snapped up, his face unreadable in the gloom.

"Don't worry, I won't tell." Iroh opened his hand and filled it with flame.

For a moment, everything went still. The fire flickered, reflected in Zuko's wide, staring eyes. Then, that moment ended, and the stillness fractured. Zuko bolted out into the night, without even pausing to lock the door.

o0O0o

"You're not the only firebender I've met here," Zuko muttered as he put the teapot down.

"There's another firebender in Ba Sing Se?" he asked, startled.

Zuko nodded. "I met him on the ferry. He keeps trying to get me to 'join him', and serve him." Zuko huffed disgustedly. "Serve him, like we aren't all in the same boat here as refugees. He told me his name was Jet, but it didn't sound like a real name."

"It isn't." Iroh swallowed back his shock. "You should stay away from him."

"You know him?"

Iroh nodded reluctantly.

"I didn't like him," he said decisively. "He said he recognized me, said I looked like someone he knew, and I should recognize him. It was weird."

Iroh almost laughed. Of course Prince Jiten would see the resemblance. He might even have a guess as to what it might mean. His nephew was no fool. "If he is here, you and your children aren't safe. No one is, but especially not you. You need to get out of the city."

"Who is he?" Zuko's eyes narrowed. "How do you know him?"

"He's family," Iroh said simply. "I will help you and your children leave the city."

"Nowhere else in the Earth Kingdom is safe." Zuko whispered. "I brought them here, because it was supposed to be."

"I know."

The ground trembled. Iroh's cup clattered to the floor, shattered. When the rumbling stopped, the cry rang out, the wall had fallen.


	2. On the Outside

**Author's Note:** Written for ultrasanaposts on Tumblr. More information for this AU can be found on my Tumblr (attackfish) at the tag: "#Half Feral Firebender verse".

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On the Outside

He was still in his corronation robes when he went to his father's cell in the the prison tower. In fact he had only slipped away from the celebration, possibly because he was crazy. Partygoers still thronged the streets, but the tumultous roar in the city below didn't penetrate the tower's chill gloom. It added to the feeling of strangeness that had settled over him as soon as the crown had touched his head, that he was now somewhere apart, the way the prison was apart, separated from the world.

He waved his guards away at the door to the cell and stepped inside. A shadowed figure sat hunched on the floor. "So the fake prodigal son, uh, 'returns.'"

"There isn't anybody here for you to pretend for," Zuko told him. "We both know who I am."

His father sneered, teeth glinting in the darkness. "The only pretender I see here is you."

"I'm here because I want you to tell me something." Zuko swallowed. "My mother. She disappeared just before you were crowned. What happened to her?"

"How should I know?" he spat. "I don't even know who your mother is."

Zuko ignored him. "Did you have her killed? I always thought you did. Azula always thought you did. She tried to act like she thought it was funny. You tried to have me killed and I was your own child. Why not do the same to your wife?"

At the mention of Azula, Zuko saw his father's eyes widen, if only fractionally.

"You almost got what you wanted," Zuko pressed viciously. "I was lucky to survive. The same way I was lucky to be born."

He fought hard not to close his eyes, not to remember the press of the bodies all around him, the way there was too little air and all of it putrid. He had seen so many things since then, things that should haunt his dreams, but what woke him up sweating and shaking was crawling out of the pile of bodies in the silence after the battle, and knowing, inescapably that his father really wanted him dead.  
He fought hard not to close his eyes because he needed to see his father's face instead. He needed to keep his eyes open as his father's expression faltered, and then as his sneer redoubled. "Am I supposed to say I'm sorry?"

"I don't think you've ever been sorry for anything in your entire life." And that was everything really. His father had never been sorry and never would be. He was just the same as he had always been, and Zuko was just tired, and disgusted, and there was only a very small piece of him left to mourn something that he had never had to start with. "The only thing I want to hear from you is what you did to my mother."

His father laughed. "No."

"You don't have to tell me today," Zuko replied simply. "You have all the time in the world."


End file.
